Making a masterpiece

成大作

How Charlotte Bront? came towrite “Jane Eyre”

夏洛蒂.勃朗特如何創(chuàng)作出《簡(jiǎn)愛(ài)》相嵌？

A new bookseeks to discover the people and places that inspired the fiction

一本探尋何人何地啟發(fā)《簡(jiǎn)愛(ài)》的新書(shū)

Print edition | Books and arts

Aug 10th 2017

The Secret?History of Jane Eyre: How Charlotte Bront? Wrote Her Masterpiece.

By JohnPfordresher.W.W. Norton; 254 pages; $26.95; ￡20.

《簡(jiǎn)愛(ài)秘史：夏洛蒂.勃朗特如何成就大作》

作者：約翰.奧德雷瑟

諾頓出版社腿时；總共254頁(yè)；售價(jià)$26.95饭宾；￡20

CRITICS relish a bit of detective work. Four hundred years after William Shakespeare died, people still offer new theories about the true identity of the “Dark Lady” and the “Fair Youth” of hissonnets. Journalists have been dogged in their attempts to discover the writer behind the pseudonym “Elena Ferrante”.

評(píng)論家總喜歡做些刨根問(wèn)底的事批糟。莎翁過(guò)世四百年了，世人還在為莎十四行詩(shī)中“黑夫人”和“俊青年”的真實(shí)身份炮制新論看铆；新聞?dòng)浾邆円惨恢备F追埃萊娜·費(fèi)蘭特（Elena Ferrante）這個(gè)筆名背后的真實(shí)身份徽鼎。

Charlotte Bront? has been the subject of many such investigations. During her lifetime, the pen name “CurrerBell” provoked wild speculations; reviewers variously concluded that the author was a man, a woman, or a mixed-sex writing duo. Readers past and present have wondered how a shy curate’s daughter from Yorkshire came to write “Jane Eyre”, a finely wrought tale of passion and darkness, when her life contained seemingly little of either. With “The Secret History of Jane Eyre”, John Pfordresher, a professor at Georgetown University, seeks to provide some answers.His aim is to unearth the real-life people and events that inspired Bront?’smuch-loved classic novel.

夏洛蒂.勃朗特就一直是這種追問(wèn)的對(duì)象。在她的一生中性湿，“柯勒.貝爾”（Currer Bell）這個(gè)筆名曾引起瘋狂揣測(cè)纬傲；文評(píng)人各種推斷，猜這是男作家肤频、女作家叹括、甚至男女混雙寫(xiě)作二人組。新老讀者也很好奇：這個(gè)生于約克郡牧師之家的害羞女孩是如何寫(xiě)出《簡(jiǎn)愛(ài)》的宵荒，這部佳作熱愛(ài)和黑暗并舉汁雷，而勃朗特的人生似乎跟這些都不怎么沾邊净嘀。美國(guó)喬治城大學(xué)的教授約翰.奧德雷瑟（John Pfordresher）用《簡(jiǎn)愛(ài)秘史》嘗試給出一些答案，教授想發(fā)掘出是什么樣的真實(shí)人物和事件啟發(fā)了勃朗特寫(xiě)出這部深受喜愛(ài)的經(jīng)典小說(shuō)侠讯。

Unfortunately, Mr Pfordresher cannot illuminate the writing process itself, save for noting the date that Bront? first put pen to paper. She left “no outlines, notes about characters,drafts scribbled over with revisions and additions” or any other such tantalising clues. So Mr Pfordresher chooses to follow the chronology of thenovel and weave in the biographical detail.

可惜的是奧德雷瑟教授除了知道勃朗特動(dòng)筆創(chuàng)作的日期挖藏，對(duì)她的創(chuàng)作過(guò)程本身沒(méi)有頭緒，“沒(méi)有故事大綱厢漩，沒(méi)有人物筆記膜眠，沒(méi)有修改增補(bǔ)的草稿”，也沒(méi)有任何引發(fā)聯(lián)想的線索溜嗜，所以教授選擇尋著這本小說(shuō)的年代表宵膨，織入作者的生平細(xì)節(jié)。

John Reed, Jane Eyre’s young adversary, is based on Charlotte’s experience of the boys she met during hertime in Belgium, as well as the unpleasant sons of the Sidgwick family (for whom she served as a governess) and a character in “Agnes Grey”, her sister Anne’s novel. Jane’s time at the dreadful Lowood Institution is reconstructed from Charlotte’s grim memories of Cowan Bridge school, only made less “exquisitely painful” (tracts were published defending the school and its proprietors). The virtuous and stoical Helen Burns is a reincarnation of Maria, the sister who died at 11;Emily and Anne are also present as Diana and Mary Rivers. So extensive is the biographical framework on which Charlotte built, Mr Pfordresher argues, that readers should view “Jane Eyre” as autobiography rather than a work of fiction.

約翰.里德是簡(jiǎn).愛(ài)的年輕對(duì)手炸宵，這個(gè)人物的原型是夏洛蒂居于比利時(shí)期間遇到的男孩辟躏，同是原型的還有西季威克（Sidgwick）家（夏洛蒂在那做過(guò)家庭教師）的淘氣兒子，以及她妹妹安妮的小說(shuō)中《艾格尼斯.格雷》中的一個(gè)人物土全。而簡(jiǎn)在羅沃德孤兒院（Lowood Institution）的可怕經(jīng)歷則是重塑于夏洛蒂在柯文橋（Cowan Bridge）學(xué)校的悲慘記憶捎琐，只是寫(xiě)得沒(méi)那么“強(qiáng)烈的痛苦”（有文章發(fā)表為這個(gè)學(xué)校和學(xué)校所有人辯護(hù)）。書(shū)中善良克制的海倫.伯恩斯（Helen Burns）裹匙，這個(gè)11歲就離世的小姐妹瑞凑，是瑪麗亞的化身；而黛安娜和瑪麗.里弗斯則是基于艾米莉和安妮[1]概页。由于夏洛蒂構(gòu)建的人物框架如此之廣拨黔，奧德雷瑟教授認(rèn)為讀者們應(yīng)該把《簡(jiǎn).愛(ài)》視作一本自傳而非一部非虛構(gòu)小說(shuō)。

Yet when it comes to the inspiration for Mr Rochester and Bertha Mason, two of the most compelling figures in English literature, Mr Pfordresher stumbles. His argument that Charlotte drew on her father Patrick’s demanding presence, fiery temper and “sexual energy” for Mr Rochester is unconvincing: Patrick’s attempts to remarry after his wife’s death seem more to do with caring for his six children than with lust. The claim that Bertha’s lunacy was based on Charlotte’s trip to North Lees Hall—where the mistress of the house “reputedly went mad, was confined ina padded room,and died in a fire”—is a fair one. But Branwell, the author’s miscreant brother, is an equally good candidate that Mr Pfordresher ignores. In her biography of Charlotte, Claire Harman points out that he kept the household awake at night “with his noisy despairing” over a past lover and is rumoured tohave set his own bed on fire.

但是說(shuō)到羅切斯特先生和伯莎.梅森的靈感來(lái)源绰沥，這兩個(gè)都屬于英國(guó)文學(xué)最扣人心弦的角色之列，奧德雷瑟教授就沒(méi)有拿捏準(zhǔn)確贺待。教授認(rèn)為夏洛蒂描寫(xiě)羅切斯特先生是基于她父親帕特里克的威嚴(yán)形象徽曲、火爆脾氣和“性能量”，這一點(diǎn)沒(méi)有說(shuō)服力：因?yàn)榕撂乩锟讼朐谄拮邮藕笤倩轸锶坪醺嗟貫榱损B(yǎng)育自己六個(gè)子女秃臣，而不是自身欲望。而教授認(rèn)為關(guān)于伯莎精神失常的描寫(xiě)源自夏洛蒂的North Lees Hall之旅則相對(duì)合理哪工，那里房屋女主“據(jù)說(shuō)已經(jīng)瘋了奥此，被禁閉在一個(gè)四墻鋪設(shè)軟墊的房間里，后來(lái)死于一場(chǎng)火宅”雁比。但教授忽視了另一個(gè)同等重要的人物稚虎，即作者的無(wú)良弟弟布倫威爾（Branwell）[2]。在克萊爾.哈曼（Claire Harman）有關(guān)夏洛蒂的傳記中偎捎，提到夏洛蒂弟弟大晚上讓一家人不得安寧蠢终，他因?yàn)檫^(guò)去的一個(gè)愛(ài)人“癲狂絕望”序攘，傳言他還把自己的床點(diǎn)火燒著。

The verisimilitude of Bront?’s novel has long been one of its greatest strengths (The Economist, reviewing it in 1847, argued that it was “perfectly fresh and lifelike” and, as such, “farremoved from the namby pamby stuff of which fashionable novels are made”). Though this “secret history” illuminates much of the real-life mould that shaped the novel, it at times confuses autobiographical elements with autobiography. In its determination that Charlotte Bront? is Jane Eyre, many of the comparisons between true incidents and those of the fiction feel forced. Literary sleuthingis often illuminating—but it can also see clues where none really exist.

勃朗特小說(shuō)的真實(shí)性長(zhǎng)久以來(lái)都是其強(qiáng)項(xiàng)之一（《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》曾在1847年點(diǎn)評(píng)過(guò)寻拂，認(rèn)為“取材十分新鮮程奠、逼真”，并且“遠(yuǎn)離時(shí)髦小說(shuō)的為賦新詞強(qiáng)說(shuō)愁”）祭钉。盡管這本“秘史”點(diǎn)出了很多塑造原小說(shuō)的真實(shí)模板瞄沙，但有時(shí)候也混淆了自傳元素和自傳。教授認(rèn)定夏洛蒂.勃朗特就是簡(jiǎn).愛(ài)原型慌核，但在很多真實(shí)事件和小說(shuō)內(nèi)容的對(duì)比上又顯得勉強(qiáng)距境。文學(xué)的探索常讓人醍醐灌頂，但也能看出有些線索并非源于現(xiàn)實(shí)遂铡。

This article appeared in theBooks and arts section of the print edition under the headline "The factsof fiction"

英文鏈接：https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21726052-new-book-seeks-discover-people-and-places-inspired-fiction-how-charlotte

[1]艾米莉.勃朗特和安妮.勃朗特是夏洛蒂.勃朗特的兩個(gè)親生妹妹肮疗，三人在英國(guó)英國(guó)文學(xué)史上有“勃朗特三姐妹”之稱(chēng)。

[2]帕特里克.布倫威爾.勃朗特（Patrick Branwell Bront?）扒接，1817 –1848伪货，是一位英國(guó)畫(huà)家和作家，是勃朗特家族的獨(dú)子钾怔、“勃朗特三姐妹”的弟弟碱呼，后來(lái)染上毒癮和酒癮，因?yàn)閻?ài)上有夫之?huà)D不得宗侦，早逝愚臀。資料來(lái)源：維基百科。

翻譯參考：

https://baike.baidu.com/item/夏洛蒂·勃朗特

https://baike.baidu.com/item/簡(jiǎn)·愛(ài)/5526?fr=aladdin&fromid=379080&fromtitle=簡(jiǎn)愛(ài)#3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branwell_Bront?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Harman_(writer)